Category Archives: English Short Comments

Now, the Minister Says the 39 Indians Are Dead

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

It was in June, 2014 that 39 Indians were abducted in Iraq by terrorists belonging to the Islamic State. Since than the External Affairs minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj had been claiming that the abducted Indians are alive, despite an eyewitness saying otherwise.

Harjit Masih, one of the 40 workers who were kidnapped by the Islamic State had claimed that the militants took them on a hillock, lined them up and shot them from the back. He said that he was hit on his leg and fell down feigning death. He later ran to safety.

The unreasonable claim made by our External Affairs minister was supported by the Palestinian Authorities as well. They not only made false claims that the abducted Indians were alive, but also said that they (the Palestinian Authorities) were trying to secure their release through their own channels in Iraq.

39 men belonging to poor families were killed by the Islamic State in 2014 and our Indian minister and Palestinian Authorities had been saying they were alive.

Now, when DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 percent, our minister accepted that those 39 people were killed.

At the same time, our minister has made another claim that the story of Harjit Masih, who managed to escape from ISIS, was a lie. Harjit had claimed the Indians were shot dead soon after they were abducted, but that was not how it happened.

Here is the link of a news published on May 14, 2015 about Harjit Masih:-
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ISIS-killed-39-Indian-hostages-Iraq-survivor-says/articleshow/47285947.cms

I really feel for these families. They had lost their earning members and false hope shown by our minister did not let them perform their last rituals. Now, the remains will be brought back from Iraq and these unfortunate families will perform their last rituals.

I cannot imagine what these families must be feeling right now. My heartfelt condolences.

A Country of Hungry And Homeless People Is Not A Great Country

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

What would you call the head of any family, who does not provide food and shelter to his own family members, but gives large donations to other families?

A part of the population in many countries sleeps hungry. There are many people in these countries that are homeless. The government of a country is similar to the head of a family. The governments of these countries are unable to provide food and shelter to their own citizens. On the other hand, the same governments spend lavishly on less than useful projects. These governments even give large donations to other countries for various reasons, but mostly, it would seem, to earn a reputation among other countries.

There is a popular saying that charity begins at home. When their own citizens are hungry and homeless, giving donations to other countries for political reasons does not make a country great. It makes them hypocritical.

When a part of its population, even if a very small portion, is hungry and homeless, a country can never claim to be ‘a great country’. If those governing the country ignore their own people, they are simply betraying their country.

A country is not merely a geographical entity. People living in a country are an essential part of that country. A government is formed to take care of its own country and its own people. Own country and own people should be the priority of every government. A government ignoring their own people is a failure.

Only Ordinary People Suffer From Partition Of Countries

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

“Father, it’s me, your son,” Chae Hee-yang, 65, from the South Korea told Chae Hoon-sik, 88, from the North Korea, as they wept at their first meeting since the younger man was just a year old.

Countries are partitioned by greed of politicians. However, it is the common person, who suffers badly because of partition of his/her country. The partition of Korea is just a one example.

In 1947, Punjab and Bengal were divided by politicians. Millions of innocent people suffered in the region by India-Pakistan partition. In 1971, the same story was repeated, when Pakistan was divided and a new country Bangladesh was formed.

Only ordinary people suffered from separation of families, rapes, abductions, murders, arsons, looting etc during many such partitions. Those, who were responsible for these partitions remained safe during these massacres.

Separatism is not always the only option of our problems. Yet there are people, who are not ready to understand this. They allow themselves to be played in hands of a few selfish politicians.

Related News.

Syrian President Is A Failure

(Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’)

To protect the citizens is the main duty of government of any country. If people are not safe, the government is useless.

The government in Syria failed to protect its citizens. Now they have no moral right to stay in power.

With the help of Russian armed forces, Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria can hold the power for more months or years, but it is clear that he is just a failure. He failed to protect his people. Now, he has no right to stay in the government.

Russian armed forces fighting against the Islamic State is fine, but it is the right of Syrian citizens only to decide who would rule the country. Fighting to protect a President who failed to protect his own people is not a good sign for a democracy.

The Rising Numbers of Female Suicide Bombers

In the past, we have seen that hundreds of men became suicide bombers and killed thousands of innocent people. Now, the rising numbers of female suicide bombers in Nigeria must be a cause for concern for all of us.

When we see men as well women becoming terrorists and taking lives of innocent people, we need to realise that evil ideology can so easily rob people of their ability to think rationally.

~ Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/nigeria-attacks-kill-16-force-chief-vows-boko-haram-crush/113858.html

Kano (Nigeria), July 31

A female suicide bomber and Boko Haram gunmen killed 16 persons in Nigeria as the commander of a new multinational force tasked with fighting the Islamists pledged today to crush the insurgency “very soon”.

Major General Iliya Abbah’s appointment in an Abuja ceremony as chief of the 8,700-strong force came as a woman bomber on a tricycle killed six persons in a busy market in Maiduguri, the largest city in Nigeria’s restive northeastern Borno state.

The jihadists also struck neighbouring Yobe state, killing at least 10 people including two women on Wednesday evening in a revenge attack against local vigilantes, a local official said.

The suicide attack was the latest in a wave of Boko Haram bombings — often by female bombers — targeting markets in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon that have killed and wounded scores in the past month. Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of civilians, including women and children, with many either forced or indoctrinating into joining the extremists, official say.

“The attack (on the Gamboru) market happened around 6:30 am (local time) as the grocers were arriving,” said Babakura Kolo, a vigilante in Maiduguri. — AFP

Peace in Afghanistan Is A Distant Dream

Peace in Afghanistan is a distant dream. After the withdrawal of NATO forces from combat duty, Taliban fighters are becoming stronger.

Taliban fighters will continue shed blood of government forces and civilians. As if it is not enough, Taliban fighters will not hesitate to kill one another for the power.

Taliban fighters killing Taliban fighters is nothing new. And now again, amid a widening rift over succession following the previous Taliban supremo Mullah Omar’s death, Taliban fighters have started killing each other.

At least nine Taliban fighters including a senior commander were killed in a clash broke out between rival Taliban militants that took place in western Herat province of Afghanistan following a verbal clash between the militants regarding the appointment of the group’s new supreme leader.

Warmongers cannot live peacefully…

~ Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/taliban-dissidents-launch-parallel-council-amid-rift/115377.html

Islamabad, August 3

Amid a widening rift over succession following Mullah Omar’s death, senior Taliban leaders opposed to Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s nomination as the group’s supremo have launched a parallel council, according to a media report.

The senior Taliban members, opposed to Mullah Mansour’s ascendancy, yesterday launched their parallel ‘Shura’ or council and declared themselves as the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, the Express Tribune reported.

“A few people announced Mullah Akhtar Mansour as the new leader at a meeting where neither majority of the Shura members nor Ulema were invited,” the council said in a statement.

“They imposed Mullah Mansour’s leadership on the Islamic Emirate for vested interests,” it said.

The dissidents were quoted as saying that they would convene a meeting of the council members, Islamic scholars and national figures to elect a new chief.

Mutasim Agha Jan, the former finance minister and a close confidant of Mullah Omar, has also refused to submit to the leadership of Mullah Mansour, an official close to Mutasim told the daily.

Similarly, Mansoor Dadullah, who leads the Dadullah Front, has also refused to endorse Mullah Mansour’s election. Earlier, Mullah Omar’s family has also refused to pledge allegiance to Mullah Mansour.

Mullah Omar’s younger brother Mullah Abdullah Mannan, in an audio message recorded in the Pashto language, has demanded that a council meeting of pro-Taliban clerics and militant commanders be called to deliberate and resolve the challenge facing the group.

“Our family… has not declared allegiance to anyone amid these differences,” Manan said in the audio message.

Meanwhile, a clash broke out between the Taliban militants for the first time since the confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death.

The incident reportedly took place in western Herat province of Afghanistan today following a verbal clash between the militants regarding the appointment of the group’s new supreme leader, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported.

At least nine Taliban insurgents including a senior commander were killed during the infighting, the report said.

The militants were divided in two groups over allegiance to Mullah Mansour which led to the gun battle, it said. — PTI

European Leaders Do Not Know How To Deal With Migrant Crisis

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is absolutely right, when he says, “The reality is that Europe is threatened by a mass inflow of people, many tens of millions of people could come to Europe.”

“Now we talk about hundreds of thousands but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this.”

“All of a sudden we will see that we are in minority in our own continent.”

However, it is clear that European leaders have no idea how to deal with escalating migrant crisis…

~ Amrit Pal Singh ‘Amrit’
www.AmritWorld.com

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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/new-refugee-proposals-after-photos-of-drowned-syrian-boy/128647.html

Brussels/ Budapest/Bicske/ Lisbon, September 4

European leaders, shocked by the horrifying image of a drowned Syrian child, rushed out new proposals to address the escalating migrant crisis despite deep divisions in the 28-member bloc. Hungary, however, hardened its stand, with its right-wing prime minister claiming the growing migrant crisis in Europe threatened to make Europeans a minority in their own continent after hundreds spent the night stranded on a train surrounded by police.

The heartbreaking images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead in the surf after the boat taking his family to Greece sank brought home the horror of the refugee crisis — the worst of its kind since World War II.

With tensions growing in Europe over how to handle the situation, France and Germany said they had agreed that the EU should now impose binding quotas on the numbers that member states should take in, having failed to reach such a deal in June.

“We agree that… we need binding quotas within the European Union to share the burden. That is the principle of solidarity,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters during a visit in the Swiss capital.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will next week unveil a plan for the relocation of at least 120,000 more refugees to ease the burden on frontline EU nations Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source said.

EU president Donald Tusk also called on member states to share the resettlement of at least 100,000 refugees — far above the current agreement for 32,000.

In Britain, the Guardian newspaper reported that Prime Minister David Cameron was preparing to respond to growing pressure to accept a bigger share of refugees, by accepting thousands directly from UN camps on the border with Syria.

“Final details of the numbers, funding and planned location are being urgently thrashed out in Whitehall,” the Guardian cited government sources as saying.

Cameron earlier promised the country would fulfil its “moral responsibilities”, after having only accepted 216 Syrian refugees over the past year. He said the numbers allowed would be kept “under review”.

EU foreign ministers are set to meet in Luxembourg on on Friday to discuss the escalating crisis, after pressure for action was heightened by the images of the drowned child.

Kurdi was seen in photos in a red T-shirt, blue shorts and shoes and lying motionless on the seashore before a rescue worker picks up his limp body.

“I was holding my wife’s hand. But my children slipped through my hands. We tried to cling to the small boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming,” his grieving father Abdullah Kurdi told Turkey’s Dogan news agency of the sinking. — AFP

Hungary’s Orban warns of ‘tens of millions’ of migrants

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: “The reality is that Europe is threatened by a mass inflow of people, many tens of millions of people could come to Europe.”

Viktor Orban’s regular interview to a public radio came as hundreds of migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war, woke after a night on a packed train stranded at a railway station west of Budapest, refusing to go to a nearby camp to process asylum seekers.

“Now we talk about hundreds of thousands but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this,” he said.

“All of a sudden we will see that we are in minority in our own continent.”

Shouts of “No camp, freedom!” broke out; Using shaving foam, they wrote on the side of the train: “No camp. No Hungary. Freedom train.”

The migrants had wrestled with police on Thursday, some throwing themselves on the tracks insisting they be allowed to remain on the train bound for a border town near Austria.

The train had left Budapest on Thursday morning after a two-day standoff at the city’s main railway station as police barred entry to some 2,000 migrants. Hungary says they must be registered, as per European Union rules, but many refuse, fearing they will be sent back to Hungary if caught later in western and northern Europe.

Hungary has hit out at Germany, the most popular destination among the migrants, for saying it would accept asylum requests from Syria regardless of where they entered the EU.

Parliament in Budapest is expected to endorse on Friday a raft of measures to effectively seal Hungary’s southern border with Serbia to migrants, creating holding zones on the frontier where migrants will be held while their papers are processed and potentially sent back into Serbia.

“Hungary cannot ignore Schengen rules in its procedures,” said Orban, referring to Europe’s zone of passport-free travel.

“Migrants must cooperate with Hungarian authorities, with the German authorities and if Germany wants to admit Syrians, it should issue permission for them to go into Germany.” Orban said the new measures being debated by Parliament would be implemented from September 15.

“Everyone should be prepared for this: Serbia, Macedonia, the immigrants, the human traffickers. We ourselves will prepare for this, and a different era will start from September 15.”

UK to accept thousands more refugees from Syria: Cameron

Britain will take “thousands more” refugees from Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.

Cameron said Britain had already accepted around 5,000 Syrians under its existing resettlement schemes, which would continue to take in more refugees.

“Given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of people, today, I can announce that we will do more in providing resettlement for thousands more Syrian refugees,” Cameron told reporters in Lisbon after meeting his Portuguese counterpart.

Britain’s government has faced calls to take in many more refugees after broad media coverage of the image of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach. — Reuters